If you want to distinguish your goods, services (or both) from those of another business, you may need a trade mark. Find out what trade marks are and what’s involved in the application and management process.

If you are a self filer, attorney or a Qualified Person (QP) –this is the place to find our examination manuals, FAQs, case studies, search tools and more to help you further understand and research intellectual property.

If ever there was an example in Australian IP case law that highlights the power of the rights of first-use in a trade mark dispute, it must surely be the cautionary tale of Harry Potter.
According to an article Harry Potter and the Order of the Federal Court by Catherine Lee for Clayton Utz, a court decision by Australia’s Federal Court in 2004, described by the media as a David versus Goliath test case, illustrated that proven first use of a trade mark remains the strongest criterion in a disputed ownership of a trade mark.

Brisbane-based UniQuest is Australia’s leading university commercialising entity, managing the intellectual property of The University of Queensland. It benchmarks in the top 10 percent globally for university-based technology transfer offices. Transfer of technology from academia to industry is vital to Australia's economy.

It may feel like you’re traversing a minefield in cross country skis when you go to register your trade mark but it really shouldn’t be a difficult process, says IP Australia examiner Alexandra Ashcroft, particularly if you complete your application properly the first time round.

Canberran Trish Smith sat on a plane waiting for take-off. From her seat, she watched a bottleneck of passengers form behind a young woman who stood blocking the aisle, searching through her carry-on luggage bag, slowly unpacking items she apparently needed during the flight and putting them into the seat-back pocket, such as her iPad, headphones and a makeup bag.

Necessity is the mother of all inventions, and so it was with Emma Lovell and the birth of Fly Babee. This is a dual purpose travel canopy that packs flat into a 500 g case but pops out into a dome made from black-out material that can be used on planes or prams.

Even though they had a ‘cool’ idea and couldn’t wait to get it to market, intellectual property (IP) was among the first considerations of inventors Adam Dubrich and Leigh Warren when it came to getting their Cricket Cooler® to market.